Visionary: How 4 institutions are venturing into a new mixed reality

A
new collaboration between Pearson and Microsoft is using a
self-contained holographic computer to develop “mixed reality” learning
experiences for students.

The collaboration will explore how mixed reality can help solve real
challenges in areas of learning, ranging from online tutoring and
coaching, nursing education, and engineering to construction and
surveyor training.

Microsoft says its HoloLens
is the world’s first self-contained holographic computer. Pearson is
developing and piloting mixed reality content at colleges, universities
and secondary schools in the United States and around the world.

Video: Hololens

HoloLens leverages virtual reality and augmented reality to create a
new reality – mixed reality. With virtual reality, the user is immersed
in a simulated world. Augmented reality overlays digital information on
top of the real world. Mixed reality merges the virtual and physical
worlds to create a new reality whereby the two can coexist and interact.

By understanding the user’s environment, mixed reality enables
holograms to look and sound like they are part of that world. This means
learning content can be developed for HoloLens that provides students
with real world experiences, allowing them to build proficiency, develop
confidence, explore and learn.

To develop the content for this pilot, Pearson will use Microsoft’s
holographic video capture capability, filming actors to simulate
patients with various health concerns and then transferring that video
into holograms for the student nurses to experience in a clinical
setting. When student nurses participate in the simulations using
HoloLens, they will have a real world experience diagnosing patients,
building the confidence and competence that they will need in their
careers.

Here is how 4 schools plan to integrate mixed reality:

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock and San Diego State University
are both part of a Pearson mixed reality pilot aimed at leveraging
mixed reality to solve challenges in nursing education. Today, many
nursing programs hire and train actors to simulate scenarios nurses will
face in the real world — a process that is hard to standardize and even
harder to replicate. As part of the mixed reality pilot, faculty at the
two universities’ schools of nursing are collaborating with Pearson to
improve the value and efficacy of the types of simulations in which
students participate.

At Bryn Mawr College, a women’s liberal arts college
in Pennsylvania, faculty, students, and staff are exploring various
educational applications for the HoloLens mixed reality devices. They
are testing Skype for HoloLens to connect students with tutors in
Pearson’s 24/7 online tutoring service, Smarthinking. If successful,
this solution could provide struggling students with richer, more
personalized, just-in-time support from expert tutors as if they were
sitting side-by-side.

Bryn Mawr also will experiment with using holographs and mixed
reality to explore 3D content and concepts in a number of academic
disciplines, including physics, biology, and archaeology.

Not Just Higher Education

Pearson’s work with mixed reality and HoloLens isn’t limited to
higher education. The company is in the early stages of evaluating the
impact of holographic learning at the late grammar school stage.

At Canberra Grammar School in Australia, Pearson is
working with teachers in a variety of disciplines to develop holograms
for use in their classrooms. The University of Canberra is partnering
with Pearson to provide support for the project and evaluate the impact
these holograms have on teaching and learning.

“We are thrilled to partner with Pearson to expand the curriculum
available to students to learn through the power of holograms on
Microsoft HoloLens,” said Lorraine Bardeen, general manager for
Microsoft Windows and HoloLens Experiences. “Complex systems are more
easily understood in 3D and learning through holographic computing in
mixed reality provides students a higher level of understanding and
experience that they can then bring into their real-world interactions.
HoloLens gives students access to things they may never be able to see
in real life – historical artifacts, natural history, hands on training,
and a connection to the broader world.”